Europe's last Stalinist state could fine citizens half their salary for visiting foreign websites in a domestic clamp-down on the internet.
The Republic of Belarus will this week introduce a law that imposes restrictions on visiting and/or using foreign websites by Belarus citizens and residents. Violation is punishable by fines …

Quite Easy

It is a communist state. The government owns everything and the prices are controlled. There is no unemployment, just massive underemployment. Minsk was a major industrial area but making products 30 years out of date (lorries, tractors, watches etc.) now the country exports mostly timber - to Russia who pay peanuts and sell them paper and things made of wood. Before the place went totally bonkers industrialists offered to build paper mills and factories, but that did not please the party. Minsk is a very depressing place.

Hang on

I get the impression...

...that the last surviving Communist State is defecating masonry at the thought of it's deprived collective citizenry discovering that there's a far more interesting world beyond their borders, than their totalitarian state is letting on.

Either that, or they want to ensure that the depraved state of recycled 1960s JCB tractor porn isn't going to get any worse *veg*

inb4

There's an upside: this moustached idiot dictator and his regime is literally on the brink of...

...bankruptcy: their foreign currency reserves by late Fall depleted to $2-3B and that's already including the money they "borrowed" from their few 'commercial' banks (the "Fed" only held a billion or so.)

Inflation is around 300-400%, everybody relies on the state stipend but the regime is only raising salaries by 20-30%: http://news.belta.by/en/main_news?id=670329

Simply there's no money to pay the bills and goods are becoming more and more scarce

IMF already said no, no more help unless they start changing the system.

Now all they are left with is Russia's debatable willingness to prop up the regime any further - not like Putin is without problems, ahem - and even tighter control of the flow of information aka this new law.

It's impossible to run a country like that for long, I think it's time to prepare for the fall of this ugly-looking Stalinist clown called Lukashenko, 2012 will finally bring this idiot down - good riddance; I hope his people will get the chance to put this scumbag on trial...

And the predictable outcome...

...is that all the legitimate foreign sites, like Windows Update, will withdraw leaving the field open exclusively to purveyors of malware.

(At least, that's the net-related outcome. I imagine the political outcome is less easy to predict.)

One question though. Wouldn't it be easier just to cut the wires at the border? Their chosen method of censorship sounds like they've deliberately left things so that it is possible to fall foul of the new law and incur that fine. Almost as though the whole thing is a rather desparate money-grabbing venture on the part of the authorities rather than a security clamp-down.

Belarus for past decade from outside seemed to be a test platform for authoritarian laws, many later also introduced in the Russia.

Considering that it is already de facto part of Russia, it is also logical. (Russia seem to enjoy the fact that Belarus is de jure independent, since they can distantiate themselves from it whenever they wish.)

Politically, I do not see anything happening. Or rather: whatever would happen, we will not see a single trace of it. Lots of minor things are happening - but nothing is major. For Lukashenko has taken care of everything (and everyone) major decade ago.

Lukashenko has vast experience in eliminating potential opponents. That is countered by seemingly submissive nature of Belarusians. Do not forget: Belarus for many centuries was occupied interchangeably by Poland of Russia (put Polnish and Russian history books side by side and enjoy the disparities both claiming Belarus being part of their own state). The ages of oppressions and repressions created this unique type of character which on outside doesn't care, but on inside are highly independent survivalist.

So, yeah, we do not care, we do no object. But probably most impacted have already figured ways around.

Great post, mate! Being from Belarus myself - I would say Europe should take care of this before they all turn into Partisans and even bloody terarists! This is not a joke - you guys need to look into it.